1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a substrate processing method, a substrate processing apparatus, and a computer-readable storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
The photolithography process in manufacturing a semiconductor device is usually performed using a coating and developing treatment apparatus. The coating and developing treatment apparatus includes, for example, a cassette station for transferring-in/out a substrate; a processing station in which a plurality of processing and treatment units are arranged for performing various kinds of processing and treatment such as resist coating treatment, developing treatment and thermal processing and so on; and an interface station for passing the substrate between an adjacent exposure processing unit and the processing station. The coating and developing treatment apparatus includes a plurality of substrate transfer units for transferring the substrate between the stations and between the processing units.
In the above-described coating and developing treatment apparatus, a plurality of substrates are processed in a manner of single substrate processing following a predetermined processing recipe. For example, the plurality of substrates housed in a cassette in the cassette station are successively transferred to the processing station, and each of the substrate is subjected to the resist coating treatment, the thermal processing and so on in the processing and treatment unit in the processing station in a predetermined order. The substrates are then successively transferred to the exposure processing unit via the interface station and subjected to exposure processing, and then returned again into the processing station and subjected to predetermined processing and treatment such as developing treatment and so on in the processing units. The substrates are then successively returned from the processing station back into the cassette station and housed in the original cassette.
If trouble such as failure occurs in an operating processing unit in the above-described coating and developing treatment apparatus, it is necessary to stop the operation of the coating and developing treatment apparatus and turn off the power supply and repair the failed processing unit. In this event, many substrates are usually left in the coating and developing treatment apparatus. These substrates have been collected into the cassette station by collecting operation by an operator in order to return the coating and developing treatment apparatus into a normal state and restart usual substrate processing. In order to prevent waste of the collected substrates, it is proposed that, for example, each of the collected substrates is transferred to the processing units in which the substrate has not been subjected to steps, and subjected to the remaining processing (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H9-17838).